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• Bush Accused of Catering to Big Tobacco for Global Treaty 

About a dozen tobacco-control activists rallied outside the Department of Health and Human Services Wednesday, accusing Secretary Tommy Thompson and President Bush of watering down a global treaty regulating tobacco.

The final negotiating session of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is set to begin next week in Geneva, which will lead to a vote in May. It also serves as the end to discussions that begin under the Clinton administration in October 1999. . .

In addition to Wednesday's rally, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Bush highlighting their concerns about the treaty and criticized Philip Morris' donations to the Republican Party.

The attacks were met with skepticism by the head of the U.S. delegation and tobacco giant Philip Morris (P.M.), whose parent Altria Group downplayed suggestions the company had influenced members of the administration.

"We do not know the Bush administration's positions," said Mark Berlind, Altria's legislative counsel. "We have had no behind-the-scenes contact with the administration. All of the positions of P.M. USA and P.M. International are publicly posted on a website. It's all completely transparent and out in the open what we want." . .

Some of those provisions would conflict with the established law in the United States, including the First Amendment of the Constitution, said Kenneth Bernard, an assistant surgeon general and head of the U.S. delegation.

Bernard was particularly critical of a complete ban on tobacco advertising, which he said is unconstitutional and would preclude Bush from signing the treaty.

"We have federalism issues and First Amendment issues that keep us from signing onto certain high-minded initiatives," he said. "Some countries have banned tobacco smoking in public. You can ban all you want, but if you do nothing about it, it doesn't make any difference. It's one thing to sign onto a ban, it's another thing to enforce it."

Enforcing an advertising ban would be nearly impossible, he contended. I

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I'm trying to figure what we're doing that's way out of line. In this country, we have some of the most aggressive anti-smoking campaigns and health-oriented smoking policies in the world. We think a lot of people should be following our lead. Why they think we're trying to sabotage this [WHO's Framewark Convention] is peculiar.
Kenneth Bernard, an assistant surgeon general and head of the U.S. delegation to the FCTC.